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THE AMERICAN-IRISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY 



N 



ANNUAL ADDRESS 



OF 



THE PRESIDENT GENERAL 

EI>WARD A. MOSELEY 



Hotel San Reno, New York 
February 17, 1898 



Brothers of the American-Irish Historical Society: 

Honored far beyond expectation and desert in your recent 
choice of President-General of this Society, it surely is becoming 
in me to give here first place to some recollections of a departed 
brother, our first President-General, whose name will ever remain 
conspicuous on the roll of fame and of his country's glory. 

ADMIRAL MEADE, OUR FIRST PRESIDENT-GENERAL. 

"Memory, gray old warder, throw open thy portals in welcome 
Wide to the dead — our dead — he loved us well in his life-time." 

In pleasant remembrance we recall a few of the incidents in the 
career of Richard W. Meade, as they stand recorded in the Naval 
archives of the great Republic which he served so faithfully and 
well. 

Born in the City of New York, October 9, 1837, he was 
appointed midshipman from California, in his 13th year. In 
July, 1853, a lad of 16, he was present at the "Kosta Affair," 
in the harbor of Smyrna, and shortly before attaining his majority 
he was commissioned lieutenant, January 23, I858. After the 
breaking out of the civil war he was employed, in cooperation 
with Gen. W. T. Sherman, in breaking up the guerrilla bands along 
the Mississippi River, being in command of a steam gunboat. 
Afterwards he was stationed on Stono River, South Carolina, on 
picket duty; was there attacked by Gen. Del Kamper with sixteen 
pieces of artillery and a strong supporting force, the object being 
to capture or sink Lieut. Meade's gunboat, the "Marblehead," whose 
crew consisted of only seventy men. After a sharp fight of over 
an hour — the gunboats "Pawnee" and "Williams" coming to the 
aid of the "Marblehead" — the enemy was routed and driven from 
his works with the loss of two 8-inch guns and many men. The 
"Marblehead," although struck in the hull thirty times, had only 
three of her crew killed and six wounded. Under Lieut. Meade's 



leadership a force was landed that brought away the two guns and 
destroyed the batteries. "For this service," said Capt. Balch, "I 
desire to bear my testimony to the skill and bravery of Lieut. - 
Commander Meade, who, under a sharp fire, worked his guns with 
great rapidity and handled his vessel admirably." He was also 
officially thanked in general orders by Rear Admiral Dahlgren, who 
directed the order to be read on every quarter-deck in the fleet; 
and he was recommended by the Admiral for promotion "for gal- 
lant conduct in the face of the enemy." From May 3, 1864, to 
July 7, 1865, he commanded the steamer "Chocorua" of the West 
Gulf Blockading Squadron, under Admiral Farragut. January 22, 
1865, at Calcasieu Lake, La., in the face of a greatly superior force, 
he cut out and destroyed the blockade runner "Delphina," for 
which service he was officially thanked by Commodore J. S. 
Palmer, commanding the squadron in Admiral Farragut's absence. 
From October 24, 1868, to May 5, 1869, he commanded the steamer 
"Saginaw," Pacific Squadron, and was stationed at Alaska, occupied 
in surveying and in keeping quiet the refractory Indians. During 
the summer of I870 he commanded the schooner-yacht "America" 
for experimental purposes, and sailed in the race of August 8, in 
New York harbor, distancing the English yacht "Cambria" nearly 
four miles, and coming in as "Number Four," out of over twenty 
yachts entered in that celebrated contest. From February 15, I871 , 
to April 22, 1873, he commanded the steamer "Naragansett," Pacific 
Station, and was specially commended by the Secretary of the 
Navy in his report to the President, for "great judgment and skill 
in negotiating a commercial treaty in the Samoan or Navigator 
Islands," and with his ship he passed 43 1 days under way and 
actively cruising, sailing almost entirely under canvas, about 
60,000 miles. During this time he visited almost every quarter of 
the Pacific Ocean, extending his cruise to Australia; surveyed many 
harbors and inlets; made treaties with tribes of the Polynesian 
Islands, and compelled the payment of indemnities for outrages 
inflicted upon American citizens by the natives, all unattended by 
a single death and without casualty of any sort. This cruise was 
so unusual as to attract public attention and call forth comments of 
a very complimentary character from many high and authoritative 
sources. In an official letter from the Secretary of the Navy to 



Commander Meade, dated May 2, 1873, the Admiral of the Navy 
is quoted as saying that the report of the "Naragansett" cruise was 
"the best ever sent in, and that through her was more work done 
than through any other ship afloat for the past two years," with 
other emphatic and complimentary language. 

From September 15, I890, to May 16, 1893, oi-ir brother was a 
member of the Government Board of Management and Control of 
the World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago, representing the 
Navy Department. He designed the model battleship "Illinois" as 
the Navy Department exhibit, and carried out his ideas to a com- 
pletely successful result. But in April, 1893, he was taken ill at 
Chicago and was obliged to cease all work, leave of absence being 
given him until the 27th of September following. 

In the meantime, Capt. Meade had been the author of a work on 
"Boat Exercise," of a compilation on "Naval Construction," had 
translated from the French several professional pamphlets and 
contributed numerous articles, on various subjects, to the leading 
magazines and journals. 

Nearing now the end of his official record, which I have greatly 
condensed, we find him, August 4, 1894, acting Rear- Admiral, 
commanding the North Atlantic Squadron (Flagship "New York"), 
and becoming Admiral by commission September 7, 1894, and 
continuing in active service until May 20, 1895, when, at his own 
request, he was placed on the list of retired officers as entitled 
thereto by law, having been in the service of his country for forty - 
five years. But brief was his earthly rest after those long, busy and 
eventful years, for on May 4, of the present year, from the beauti- 
ful Capital by the broad flowing river, he passed over to the silent 
and countless majority. 

That in the veins of such a man as this flowed the blood, a strain 
of which warms every heart of Celtic inheritance, is something of 
which we, of the same descent, may all be glad and proud. 

THE INFLUENCES OF THE CELT. 

An eminent divine has compared the influences of the Celtic race 
upon the nations to the influence of the mighty Gulf Stream of the 
Atlantic Ocean, which 

"In its sublime circuit wasiies the shores of continents; visits remotest islands; 



wanders through every clime; cools the expanses of equatorial seas; melts the 
proud iceberg in its adventurous career; carries on its bosom the navies of every 
nation; swallows up in its vortex the mightiest rivers that flow from the lands; 
awakens the wildest tempests throughout its measureless course; sends verdure 
and wealth to the isles and coasts of Western Europe, and breathes those blessed 
gales by which we, in America, are refreshed in the torrid days of summer. 
From its first perceptible movements at the Equator until it disappears amid the 
ice of Nova Zembia, nothing can turn it from its course- It is whirled under 
blazing tropic suns; it is lashed into storms by vast icebergs, and congealed by 
the seas of the frozen North; still, on, and on, it goes to its destiny. 

"Thus it is also with the Celtic race of men. In ages before the advent of our 
Lord, a branch of the Gallic or Celtic race, 'as it went plundering through the 
world,' from the wild interior of Asia, reached Great Britain and there settled 
as the Celts of Scotland, Ireland and Wales. 

"For four hundred and twenty years, or as long as the Roman power governed 
them, the people, thus early planted, flourished in the British Isles. The Celtic 
tribes in each of these, were those who were Christianized. At that time a new 
impulse was given to the current of their history by St. Patrick, who, about 430, 
made Ireland the field of his labors in the cause of Christ; and by St. Columba, 
an Irishman of the royal lineage of Ulster, who, about 550, probably did more 
to elevate the race than any other man. He selected the sacred isle of lona or 
Columkill, amid the tempest-lashed islands of the northwest of Scotland, and, 
taking its old Druidic college, established in it that celebrated school, institu- 
tution, or monastery, which for centuries was the great source of light to 
northern Europe by sending forth missionaries v/ell trained for their work. 
Then in Ireland we find them. . . . There they rested for awhile. There 
they received the deep impress of that training through which they were pre- 
pared for their last and grandest mission in working out the Constitution of 
this country, destined in the glories of Providence to take a leading part in the 
final movements of the human race. . . . From there, as the Gulf Stream 
spreads over the Atlantic and over the northern regions of the globe, were they 
to spread out and influence the action of men." 

Nowhere else have I seen so well set forth the indomitable endur- 
ance and distinctive characteristics of the Celtic race, which, from 
long before the dawn of history, like a veritable Gulf Stream, 
maintained its individuality in the tide of time. 

According" to the best authority in this matter, the first race of 
men to occuppy the British Isles is unknown; but their inhabitants, 
as known to the Greeks or Romans before the Christian era, were 
of the Aryan stock, supposed to come from Central Asia, called 
sometimes Celts or Kelts, and sometimes Gauls or Gaels. Of this 
great race — turbulent, roving, war-like — certain tribes entered north- 
ern Italy, and for generations harassed and defied the Roman 



power until subdued by the conquering" legions of Cassar. Others 
appear in Macedonia, Thrace, and Greece, as early as, or even 
before 278 B. C; others, again, about the same time in Asia-Minor, 
possessing a province thereof, and giving to it their ethnic name, 
Latinized, "Galatia," where, after three centuries, the Gospel was 
preached to them by St. Paul, probably in their own Celtic dialect, 
as it was still spoken by the common people, and as the mission- 
aries of the Apostolic period had the "gift of tongue." Still others 
in Spain are found, known to history as Celt- Iberians, who, for a 
long time, made head against the armies of both Carthage and 
Rome; and yet other and other tribes and clans of this imperishable 
and immortal race, ever following the sun in its course, had cen- 
turies before appeared in the Western Isles, preserving to this day 
their best characteristics. 

Out of these characteristics — vitality, energy, aggressive force, 
conflicts were certain to arise — not only with other races, as in Gaul 
but often in the British Isles between diiTerent clans, chieftains, and 
religious and other partisans of their own race. And, in turn, out 
of these ever varying and shifting conflicts, and these elemental 
characteristics, came the four provinces or kingdoms of Ireland; 
and the Scottish invasions of Ulster, in the days of Bruce, and the 
plantation by James I (himself a Celt), with their mingling of 
clans, which introduced no new race, as the invaders were merely 
returning to their fatherland. 

Naturally and inevitably, out of a profound sense of spiritual 
things, came with Christianity to the Irish Celts the missionary and 
proselytizing spirit, which long centuries thereafter involved them 
in creed conflicts, while their British kinsmen mostly adopted the 
doctrine of the Protestant Reformation; the greater part of the 
inhabitants of the Green Isle held fast to and sutTered as no other 
people ever sutTered for the ancient faith first brought to them by 
the great patron Saint of Ireland, St. Patrick, a Celt. By a touch 
of genius he idealized, transfigured the modest shamrock at his feet 
into a symbol of nationality, as well as an emblem of the divine 
Trinity — making the trefoil an object-lesson to his simple followers, 
who might there behold a physical manifestation of the mysterious 
truth of "three in one and one in three." Alas, that it did not also 
become the emblem of a fraternal union of the Celtic people of the 
three British Isles. 



A half century from the death of St. Patrick, or in the year 521, 
in the County of Donegal, was born of royal lineage, St. Columba, 
or Columkille, a hero of the Christian faith, only second to the 
great Patron Saint in fame and true glory. Columkille, name for- 
ever associated with that band of Cultores Dei, worshippers of God, 
with that institution of learning, which down into the seventeenth 
century continued to send forth its devoted Christian scholars to 
instruct and to enlighten the world, with lona's sacred isle, whose 
name is even now, as then, a far-off and tender reminiscence of an 
early home of the Christianized Celto-Gallic race. 

And here, 1 say, that 1 am not dealing with any statement that 
"Culdeeism was the germ or origin of Presbyterianism," or that St. 
Patrick derived all his authority from the Roman Cathohc Church, 
I am here to speak only in reverent affection of that branch of race 
lineage in which we all claim a part — of that strong race-current 
which has pushed and cut its way through the common ocean 
of humanity; maintaining to a wonderful degree its individuality, 
when at its best, sympathetic and beneficent in all its course; which 
has appeared, in certain of its devious wanderings and winding 
eddies and branches, both under the name of Ancient Britains and 
sub-names of Englishmen, Irishmen, Scotchmen, and Welchmen, 
whose rival creeds, religious sects, and theologic dogmas ought to 
find no place in any discussion upon such an occasion as this. 

We all, whether Irish or Scotch, English or Welch, Celts of Ancient 
British stock, are of a grand race, in which, largely mingled as it is 
with Germanic strain, we avow a just pride. 

A vast amount of prejudice has existed in this country against 
the Irish people who have come to our shores as immigrants, it 
existed generations back and to some extent affects their descend- 
ants who bear distinctively Irish names — "the Macs and the O's" — 
as the saying is. Now, one of the objects of our Society is, or 
should be, to show that this prejudice has no foundation to stand 
on. it is based on the theory that the English people and the Irish 
people are of entirely distinct races, the former mainly "Anglo- 
Saxon," the latter Celtic. Now, nothing is better established 
ethnologically than that the two people are of precisely the same 
original stock — Ancient Britains — with practically the same 
mingling of bloods introduced by subsequent invading tribes, 



mainly Germanic. First came the Romans, whose legions were 
mostly recruited in Gaul, and these were Celts or Germans; then 
came the Northmen— Goths; Danes— also Goths; the Angles, and 
Saxons, etc. (Germans), and lastly the Normans, who were a mix- 
ture of the Teutonic and Celtic. 

These additions to the ancient British people merged into that 
stock; and the proportion of the British type is about the same 
to-day in the Eastern part of England— the so-called Anglo-Saxon 
section — that it is in the Eastern half of Ireland. There is to-day, 
in proportion to the population, as much so-called "Anglo-Saxon" 
blood in the people in the Eastern half of Ireland as there is in the 
people of the Eastern part of England. In the Western half of 
England there is as much old British—/, e., Celtic— blood in the 
people as there is in the most Celtic part of Ireland. The test of 
the proportion of the Celtic or Germanic blood in both countries is 
the color of the hair and eyes. The Celts were dark-haired and 
blue-eyed; the Germans, fair-haired or red-haired and blue-eyed. 

It has been estimated by scientific tests that about 70 per cent, of 
the English people are of the dark-haired type, and there is no 
greater percentage of this type in any part of Ireland. In this 
country the fair-haired type is not so great, not even in the oldest 
settlements of New England; hence, when we give all the credit of 
English and American civilization and progress to the alleged 
Anglo-Saxon race, we merely assert what is grossly untrue and 
unjust to ourselves and our Celtic ancestors. The "Anglo-Saxons" 
got their civilization from the Celtic Britons, who were civilized by 
the Romans first, and who derived all their knowledge of law, lit- 
erature, art, science, etc., from the people of Gaul and Rome. When 
the Anglo-Saxons came to England they were barbarians, and that 
they did not exterminate the British people nor drive them into 
Wales is abundantly proven by the type and complexion of the 
English people of the present day. 

As in the classic age of Greece, the beauties and sublimities of 
natural scenery in a favored clime, inspired and stirred a virile race 
until it broke forth in strains of epic narrative and sweetest song; 
and as it is more than a fancy that the sea waves' rythmic roll and 
plash upon the shore must have suggested the bound and cadence 
of the Homeric verse, so the caustic wit and humor of Swift, the 



10 

dramatic genius of Shakespeare, the glowing imagination of Gold- 
smith, the immortal poesy of Burns, and Tom Moore's divine mel- 
odies are but the reflex of outward scenes and experience— environ- 
ments acting upon peculiar Celtic temperament, aptitude or genius. 

CELTIC INFUENCE ON AMERICAN INSTITUTIONS AND 
NATIONALITY. 

But 1 must come to my more immediate theme: the influence of 
the American Celt in moulding our own institutions and nationality. 
The Celtic element of our population, while it may justly claim 
honors from those members of the race who, at Mecklenburg, 
North Carolina, made that original Declaration of Independence, 
which contains much of the identical phraseology afterwards used 
by Mr. JeiTerson, and from those of their ancestors sitting in the 
Parliament of Ireland, to whom that memorable letter explanatory 
of the Declaration of Independence was addressed by John Han- 
cock,* and signed by him as President of the American Congress — 
our Celtic element need not rely upon such incidents in our history, 
illustrious and inspiring as they are, and in which every Celt takes 
a just pride as being manifestations of the unquenchable spirit of 
his blood; for in the development of our independence and progress, 
from the first settlement of the colonies to the present day, the 
palm must be awarded to the Celts, without distinction of provinces 
or creed, as their influence in making our civilization what it is 
predominates over that of any other portion of the human race in 
the make-up of the American people. This fact has been well 
demonstrated by my learned friend, Mr. J. D. O'Connell, of the 
U. S. Bureau of Statistics, Treasury Department, the Vice-President 
of this Society for the District of Columbia, in his well-known 
letter, replying to President Eliot's Atlantic Monthly article on 
"Five American Contributions to Civilization.'' 

Indeed, before the birth of the Union, while there were but twelve 
colonies at the time, their delegates united in that appeal of John 
Hancock's, to which I have just referred, addressed to the people of 
Ireland for sympathy and for help. It is said that at that time the 
more sanguine on both sides indulged in the fond dream — as among 

*See Appendix. 



11 

the possibilities of the great struggle — of securing to the Green isle, 
not only the freedom for which she has so long yearned, but a 
place in the confederation, which would have given her a star in 
the blue field of our country's banner. 

How Ireland responded to that appeal, the speeches of Edmund 
Burke and Richard Brinsley Sheridan in the British Parliament, 
representing, as they did, the sentiment of the people of Ireland in 
sympathy with our revolutionary struggle, will attest. 

Our immortal Declaration of Independence was signed by fifty- 
six names, of which eight, in addition to that of Charles Thompson, 
of Pennsylvania, a County Derry man, who was the Secretary of 
the Continental Congress, belonged to Irishmen or the sons of 
Irishmen. These were Matthew Thornton, of New Hampshire; 
James Smith, George Taylor, and Thomas McKean, of Pennsyl- 
vania; George Reade, of Delaware; Charles Carroll, of Carrollton; 
Thomas Lynch and Edward Rutledge, of South Carolina. But 
Irishmen contributed something besides their courage and talents 
to the cause of the Revolution. In 178O, when the finances of the 
Army were at the lowest ebb, when the hardships of the soldiers 
for want of food and clothing had reached a point where mutiny 
reared its head, seventy-six merchants of Philadelphia subscribed 
an enormous sum foi the relief of the soldiers. Of the subscribers, 
twenty were Irish, and the amounts appearing opposite their names 
aggregated $442,500 — in those days an enormous sum. 

As I have already said, I utterly discard and scout all discussion 
and estimate of the relative meed of praise due in the Revolutionary 
struggle, and since, to those different branches of the Celtic race 
which took part in our cause, and to the diverse religious sects or 
creeds of their soldiers and statesmen, scholars, philosophers, 
teachers and missionaries, settlers in western solitudes, founders of 
new states, builders of imperial cities from the Atlantic to the 
Pacific coast, and from the great Northern Lakes to the Southern 
Gulf. Proud of my Celtic lineage, derived from England, Ireland, 
and Wales, I no less give honor to all of our race who, on the 
battle-field or in the Senate, in the church or in the halls of learn- 
ing, or in humbler walks of life, have faithfully borne their part in 
the organization and development of free American institutions. 
And while I remember with gratitude that, in an intolerant age. 



12 

under the Catholic Calverts, father and sons, and especially under 
Cecil Calvert, second Lord Baltimore, all Christian sects in Mary- 
land were free to worship God, each in its own way, nevertheless, I 
remember with regret that in other colonies, and later on in Maryland 
itself, people of the same ancient British stock were persecuting to 
the death their neighbors and friends, all on account of mistaken relig. 
ious zeal degenerated into bigotry; and I also remember that the main 
body of the British Army that supported the crown in our Revolu- 
tionary war were also of the same British stock as the Celts, who 
so manfully resisted them. But, thanks be to God, those days of 
bigotry and intolerance have passed forever, and nothing remains 
of that kind to remind us of them, except the false and absurd idea 
that the American people are of the so-called "Anglo-Saxon" race. 
It is for our Society to demonstrate, on the lines Mr. J. D. O'Con- 
nell, of Washington, has so well marked out for us, that there never 
was such a race, and that we, the American people, are Celto- 
Germanic, like our British ancestors, with the Celt, now as ever 
before, largely predominating. 

THE BUILDERS OF THE REPUBLIC 

The English historian, Plowden, says: 

"It is a fact, beyond question, that most of tlie early successes of the patriots 
of America were owing to the vigorous exertions and prowess of the Irish 
emigrants who bore arms in that cause." 

Lucky, the historian, declared that: 

"Few classes were so largely represented in the American Army as Irish 
emigrants." 

Other authorities might be cited to the same effect. We know 
that Washington cherished the most profound gratitude for the 
services of his Irish soldiers. When he joined the Friendly Sons of 
St. Patrick, at Philadelphia, he complimented them as "a society 
distinguished for the firmest adherence to our cause." 

It is an historic fact that during the eleven years of agitation, 
between the passage of the Stamp Act and the Battle of Lexington, 
the influence of the Irish settlers in the colonies was fiercely and 



unceasingly excited to incite resistance against Great Britain. It 
was Byron who wrote: 

And if we do but watch the hour 
There never yet was human power, 
That could evade, if unforgiven, 
The patient search and vigil long 
Of him who treasures up a wrong. 

In every engagagement, from Concord to Yorktown, Irish exiles 
sealed with their blood their love for the Republic and their hatred 
of the common oppressor. Well might Lord Mount joy, many 
years after, in moving for the repeal of the Irish penal code, startle 
the British Parliament with the bitter exclamation: "You lost 
America by the Irish." 

Not in a vain-glorious spirit do we recall these facts, but to show 
that the Irish-Americans of to-day, and their sons and daughters, 
have a stake, even beyond their common citizenship, in the great- 
ness and glory of the Republic. In the foundation of our noble 
political fabric, the children of Erin played a heroic and invaluable 
part. The blood that was shed during the seven years of the 
Revolutionary war was the seed of the American Constitution, and 
Irishmen helped to provide the sacrifice. Among them we may 
well name the Carrolls, the Rutledges, the Sullivans, the Montgom- 
erys, the Fitzsimmons, and Barrys, the Henrys, the O'Briens, 
Thompsons, and McKeans, the Waynes, Caldwells, Moylans, Cad- 
waladers, Dickensons, Morris', Nixons, Dunlaps of the Revolution. 
Whence came Andrew Jackson, Addis Emmet, Calhoun, and Mc- 
Dutfle of a later day.^ Whence Thomas Clinton, the projector of 
the Erie Canal, the inventor of the first steamboat, and the builder 
of the first American railway.? Whence our sculptors, St. Gaudens, 
Milmore, Powers, and Crawford.? Whence our most distinguished 
poHtical economists, Carey and Baird.? Whence the hero of Win- 
chester.? They were all Irish by birth or extraction. And may I 
not ask, who can doubt the paternity of our distinguished President, 
one of whose name, William McKinley, of Dervock county, Antrim, 
was the close friend of the Irish patriot, Henry Joy McCracken, the 
leader of the Ulster rebels.? And whence Fuller and Harlan and 
Brewer and White and McKenna, of our present Supreme Court of 
the United States.? 



14 

And note, also, our indebtedness to another branch of the old 
Celtic stock — the Welsh. Of the signers of the Declaration of 
Independence, eighteen had Welsh blood in their veins. But why 
need I continue the enumeration of the distinguished men who are 
bone of our bone and sinew of our sinew.? 

But while this knowledge and recollection stir an honest pride, 
it should also stimulate our sense of patriotic duty. It is for us to 
do what we can to preserve and perpetuate the heritage of Ameri- 
can freedom for which the patriots of the Revolution suffered and 
died, to give our fondest devotion to the Republic, to guard its 
institutions with jealous care, to work for the highest political ideals, 
with an eye single to the best interests of our beloved country. 

Indeed, Celtic influence in America is all too vast and varied for 
adequate treatment in any occasional address. Beyond the merest 
enumeration, what can be said of that influence flashing every- 
where like threads of light throughout all the web and fabric of 
American history.? Of that influence in war and peace, in art and 
science and letters, at the bar, on the bench, and in legislative halls, 
and through the myriad quiet ways of private and domestic life — 
who, in a brief hour, shall give voice to words worthy of the 
majestic theme.? Thus, out from the twilight of time and poured 
over all the world, has the grand Celtic race stream swept its 
way, until here the enlarged vortex of its compulsive course 
has warmed and vitalized the whole American people. 

"We are but as the instruments of Heaven, 
Our work is not design, but destiny." 



15 



APPENDIX. 

An address of the Twelve United Colonies of North America, by 
their Representatives in Congress, to the People of Ireland: 

To till'. J\'oph' of Ireland: 

From the delegates appointed by the United Colonies of New Hampshire, 
Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island, and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New 
York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, The Lower Counties on Delaware, Maryland, 
Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina, in General Congress, at Phila- 
delphia, the lOth of ay, 1775. 

Friends aiul Fellow-Sabjecis: 

As the important contest into which we have been driven is now become 
interesting to every European state, and particularly affects the members of the 
British Empire, we think it our duty to address you on the subject. We are 
desirous, as is natural to injured innocence, of possessing the good opinion of 
the virtuous and humane. We are particularly desirous of furnishing you 
with a true statement of our motives and objects; the better to enable you to judge 
of our conduct with accuracy and determine the merits of the controversy with 
impartiality and precision. However incredible it may appear, that, at this 
enlightened period, the leaders of the nation, which in every age has sacrificed 
hecatombs of her bravest patriots on the altar of liberty, should presume 
gravely to assert and, by force of arms, attempt to establish an arbitrary sway 
over the lives, liberties, and property of their fellow-subjects in America; it is, 
nevertheless, a most deplorable and indisputable truth. 

These colonies have, from the time of their first settlement, for near two 
centuries, peaceably enjoyed those very rights of which the ministry have for 
ten years past endeavored by fraud and by violence to deprive them. At the 
conclusion of the last war the genius of England and the spirit of wisdom, as if 
offended at the ungrateful treatment of their sons, withdrew from the British 
counsels aud left that nation a prey to a race of ministers, with whom ancient 
English honesty and benevolence disdained to dwell. From that period, 
jealousy, discontent, oppression, and discord have raged among all His 
Majesty's subjects, and tilled every part of his dominions with distress and 
complaint. 

Not content with our purchasing of Britain, at her own price, clothing and 
a thousand other articles used by near three millions of people on this vast con- 
tinent; not satisfied with the amazing profits arising from the monopoly of our 
trade, without giving us either time to breathe after a long, though glorious, ' 
war, or the least credit for the blood and treasure we have expended in it; not- 
withstanding the zeal we had manifested for the service of our sovereign, and 



16 

the warmest attachment to the constitution of Britain and the people of 
England, a black and horrid design was formed, to convert us from freemen 
into slaves, from subjects into vassals, and from friends into enemies. 

Taxes, for the first time since we landed on the American shores, were, with- 
out our consent, imposed upon us; an unconstitutional edict to compel us to 
furnish necessaries for a standing" army, that we wished to see disbanded, was 
issued, and the Legislature of New York suspended for refusing to comply with 
it. Our ancient and inestimable right of trial by jury was, in many instances, 
abolished, and the common law of the land made to give place to admiralty 
jurisdictions. Judges were rendered, by the tenure of their commissions, entirely 
dependent on the will of the Minister. New crimes were arbitrarily created, 
and new courts, unknown to the coustitution, instituted. Wicked and insidious 
Governors have been set over us; and dutiful petitions for the removal of even 
the notoriously infamous Governor Hutchinson were branded with the oppro- 
brious appellation of scandalous and defamatory. Hardy attempts have been 
made, under color of Parliamentary authority, to seize Americans, and carry 
them to Great Britain to be tried for offenses committed in the Colonies. 
Ancient charters have no longer remained sacred — that of the Massachusetts 
Bay was violated; and their form of government essentially mutilated and 
transformed; on pretense of punishing- a violation of some private property 
committed by a few disguised individuals, the populous and flourishing town of 
Boston was surrounded by fleets and armies; its trade destroyed, its ports 
blocked up, and thirty thousand citizens subjected to all the miseries attending 
so sudden a convulsion in their commercial metropolis; and to remove every 
obstacle to the rigorous execution of this system of oppression, an act of Parlia- 
ment was passed, evidently calculated to indemnify those who might, in the 
prosec ution of it, even embrue their hands in the blood of the inhabitants. 

Though pressed by such an accumulation of undeserved injuries, America 
still remembered her duty to her Sovereign. A Congress, consisting of Depu- 
ties from Twelve United Colonies, assembled. They, in the most respectful 
terms, laid their grievances at the foot of the throne, and implored His Majesty's 
interposition in their behalf. They also agreed to suspend all trade with Great 
Britain, Ireland, and the West Indies; hoping by this peaceable mode of oppo- 
sition to obtain that justice from the British Ministry which had been so long 
solicited in vain. And here permit us to assure you that it was with the utmost 
reluctance we could prevail uDon ourselves to cease our commercial connections 
with your island. Your Parliament had done us no wrong. Yan had ever been 
friendly to the rights of mankind; and we acknowledge, with pleasure and with 
gratitude, that i/our nation has produced patriots, who have nobly distinguished 
themselves in the cause of humanity and America. On the other hand, we were 
not ignorant that the labor and manufactures of Ireland, like those of the silk- 
worm, were of little moment to herself; but served only to give luxury to those 
who neither loil nor spin. We perceived that if we continued our commerce 
with you, our agreement not to import from Britain would be fruitless, and 
were, therefore, compelled to adopt a measure to which nothing but absolute 
necessity could have reconciled us. It gave us, however, some consolation to 



17 

reflect that, should it occasion much distress, the tertile regions of America 
would aftord you a safe asylum from poverty, and, in time, from oppression 
also — an asylum in which many thousands of your countrymen have found 
hospitality, peace, and affluence, and become united to us by all the ties of con- 
sanguinity, mutual interest, and aft'ection. Nor did the Congress stop here. 
Flattered by a pleasing expectation that the justice and humanity which had so 
long characterized the English nation would, on proper application, afford us 
relief, they represented their grievances in an affectionate address to their 
brethren in Britain, and entreated their aid and interposition in behalf of these 
Colonies. 

The more fully to evince their respect for their Sovereign, the unhappy 
people of Boston were requested by the Congress to submit with patience to 
their fate, and all America united in a resolution to abstain from every species of 
violence. During this period that devoted town suffered unspeakably. Its 
inhabitants were insulted and their property violated. Still relying on the 
clemency and justice of His Majesty and the nation, they permitted a few regi- 
ments to take possession of their town; to surround it with fortifications, and 
to cut off all intercourse between them and their friends in the country 

With anxious expectation did all America wait the event of their petition; all 
America laments its fate. Their Prince was deaf to their complaints. And vain 
were all attempts to impress him with a sense of the sufferings of his American 
subjects; of the cruelty of their Task-Masters, and of the 7nan!/ plagues which 
impended over his dominions. Instead of directions for a candid inquiry into our 
grievances, insult was added to oppression, and our long forbearance rewarded 
with the imputation of cowardice. Our trade with foreign states was pro- 
hibited, and an act of Parliament passed to prevent our even fishing on our own 
coasts. Our peaceable assemblies, for the purpose of consulting the common 
safety, were declared seditious; and our asserting the very rights which placed 
the Crown of Great Britain on the heads of the three successive Princes of the 
House of Hanover, styled rebellion. Orders were given to reinforce the troops 
in America. The wild and barbarous savages of the wilderness have been 
solicited by gifts to take up the hatchet against us, and instigated to deluge 
our settlements with the blood of innocent and defenseless women and children. 
The whole country was, moreover, alarmed with the expected horrors of 
domestic insurrection. Refinements in parental cruelty, at which the genius of 
Britain must blush! Refinements which admit not of being even recited with- 
out horror, or practiced without infamy! We should be happy were these dark 
machinations the mere suggestion of suspicion. We are sorry to declare that 
we are possessed of the most authentic and indubitable credenceof their reality. 
The Ministry, bent on pulling dov/n the pillars of the constitution, endeavored 
to erect the standard of despotism in America; and if successful, Britain and 
Ireland may shudder at the consequences. Three of their most experienced 
generals are sent to wage war with their fellow-subjects; and America is amazed 
to find the name of Howe in the catalogue of her enemies. She loved his 
brother. Despairing of driving the colonies to resistance by any other means 
than actual hostility, a detachment of the army at Boston marched into the 



18 

country in all the array of war, and, unprovoked, fired upon and killed several 
of the inhabitants. The neighboring farmers suddenly assembled and repelled 
the attack. From this, all communication between the town and country was 
intercepted. The citizens petitioned the general for permission to leave the 
town, and he promised, on surrendering their arms, to permit them to depart 
with their other effects They, accordingly, surrendered their arms, and the 
general violated his faith Under various pretenses, passports were delayed 
and denied, and many thousands of the inhabitants are at this day confined in 
the town in the utmost wretchedness and want. The lame, blind, and the sick 
have indeed been turned out into the neighboring fields; and some, eluding the 
vigilance of the sentries, have escaped from the town by swimming to the adja- 
cent shores. 

The war having thus begun on the part of General Gage's troops, the country 
armed and embodied. The reinforcements from Ireland soon after arrived; a 
vigorous attack was then made upon the provincials. In their march, the troops 
surrounded the town of Charlestown, consisting of about four hundred houses, 
then recently abandoned to escape the fury of the relentless soldiery. Having 
plundered the houses, they set fire to the town and reduced it to ashes. To 
this wanton waste of property, unknown to civilized nations, they were 
prompted, the better to conceal their approach under cover of the smoke. A 
shocking mixture of cowardice and cruelty, which then first tarnished the lustre 
of the British arms, when aimed at a brother's breast! But, blessed be God, 
they were restrained from committing further ravages by the loss of a very 
considerable part of their army, including many of their most experienced 
officers. The loss of the inhabitants was inconsiderable. 

Compelled, therefore, to behold thousands of our countrymen imprisoned, 
and men, women, and children involved in promiscuous and unmerited misery; 
when we find all faith at an end, and sacred treaties turned into tricks of State; 
when we perceive our friends and kinsmen massacred, our habitations plundered, 
our houses in flames, and their once happy inhabitnats fed only by the hand of 
charity, who can blame us for endeavoring to restrain the progress of desola- 
tion? Who can censure our repelling the attack of such a barbarous band? 
Who, in such circumstances, would not obey the great, the universal, the divine 
law of self-preservation? 

Though villified as wanting spirit, we are determined to behave like men. 
Though insulted and abused, we wish for reconciliation Though defamed as 
seditious, we are ready to obey the laws. And though charged with rebellion, 
will cheerfully bleed in defense of our Sovereign in a righteous cause. What 
more can we say? What more can we offer? 

But we forebear to trouble you with a tedious detail of the various and fruit- 
less offers and applications we have repeatedly made, not for pensions, for 
wealth, or for honors, but for the humble boon of being permitted to possess 
the fruits of honest industry, and to enjoy that degree of Liberty to which God 
and the Constitution have given us an undoubted right. 

Blessed with an indissoluble union, with a variety of internal resources, and 
with a firm reliance on the justice of the supreme disposal of all human events. 



19 

we have no doubt of rising' superior to all the machinations of evil and aban- 
doned Ministers We already anticipate the j;olden period when liberty, with all 
the gentle arts of peace and humanity, shall establish her mild dominion in 
this western world, and erect eternal monuments to the memory of those vir- 
tuous patriots and martyrs who shall have fought and bled and suffered in her 

cause. 

Accept our most grateful acknowledgments for the friendly disposition you 

have always shown toward us. We know that you are not without your 
grievances. We sympathize with you in your distress, and are pleased to find 
that the design of subjugating- us has persuaded administration to dispense 
to Ireland some vagrant rays of ministerial sunshine; even the tender mercies of 
government have long been cruel toward )/oii. In the rich pastures of Ire- 
land many hungry parricides have fed and grown strong to labor in its destruc- 
tion. We hope the patient abiding of the meek may not always be forgotten; 
and God grant that the iniquitous schemes of extirpating liberty from the 
British Empire may be soon defeated. But we should be wanting to ourselves; 
we should be perfidious to posterity; we should be unworthy of that ancestry 
from which we derive our descent, should we submit with folded arms to mili- 
tary butchery and depredation to gratify the lordly ambition or face the avarice 
of the British Ministry. In defense of our persons and property, under actual 
violation, we have taken up arms. When that violence shall be removed, and 
hostilities cease on the part of the aggressors, they shall cease on our part also. 
For the achievement of this happy event, we confide in the good offices of our 
fellow-subjects beyond the Atlantic. Of their friendly disposition we do not 
yet despond, aware, as they must be, that they have nothing more to expect from 
the same common enemy than the humble favor of being last devoured. 
By order of the Congress, 

John Hancock, President. 
Philadelphia, July 28, 1775- 



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